Homer by Hannah Williams rallies girls to 2-0 win

After losing five straight, the Hood River Valley High School varsity softball team claimed a 2-0 victory in the second game of a doubleheader against The Dalles-Wahtonka Saturday afternoon.

In the first contest, TDW (3-7 CRC, 11-10 overall) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. The Eagles (2-8, 11-11) came back and tied it in the seventh on a sacrifice fly RBI by catcher Annie Veatch, driving in Megan Winans, who earlier singled. After two scoreless frames, TDW scored a run in the 10th to pull out a 2-1 victory.

In the second game, junior Hannah Williams smashed a third-inning solo homer and sophomore hurler Kayla Byers had a strong performance in the pitching circle to help lead coach Eric Keller’s Eagles to a 2-0 victory. HRV added an insurance run in the sixth for the final margin.

“It was good seeing Kayla come out and have a dominating performance in the second game,” said Keller. “Kayla pitched a good game, she had lots of strikeouts and we played flawless defense.”

It was just the second victory in a month for HRV, which notched its last win against Pendleton on April 21. The slump, including nine losses in the last 11 games, began with a 4-2 home loss April 9 to the Molalla Indians.

“It was very important to get the win in game two, because we’re been in quite a bit of a slump recently,” said Keller. “We’re excited now, because we’ve started to hit better and we’re scoring some runs, so that will help boost our confidence level. We really needed this win after struggling in recent games against Pendleton and Hermiston.”

The Eagles conclude the regular season with a final dual Friday in The Dalles. The girls are currently ranked eighth in the OSAA Class 5A North Region and will likely host a Play-in contest either May 18 or 19.

The top eight North Region teams will host games in the 32-team play-in round; winners will advance to the first round of the 16-team state playoffs May 23.